Mark Hunter MP

Local Together Trust Pupils Visit Westminster to Campaign for the Autism Bill

July 20, 2009 12:09 PM

Mark with the pupils from the Together Trust

Pupils from three Together Trust services - Inscape House Cheadle school, Inscape House Salford school and the Inscape Centre - travelled to Parliament in July 2009 to host their own question time and listen to MPs' views the Autism Bill.

The group of 7 boys met local MPs Mark Hunter, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Lib Dems, Barbara Keeley, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and John Leech, Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesman. They also met Joan Humble, who co-sponsored the Autism Bill when it was introduced to Parliament as a Private Members Bill by Cheryl Gillan MP.

Gail Norrie, deputy head at Inscape Cheadle and co-ordinator of the Westminster trip said: "The trip was arranged to give pupils a first-hand experience of Westminster and to bring their citizenship classes to life by empowering them to share their personal opinions on the Autism Bill. There are many misconceptions about autism and we wanted to inform MPs personally about the particular issues our young people at Inscape face."

Matthew Jennings, aged 16 from Inscape Cheadle said: "We produced a film of our questions and played it to the MPs who met us at Westminster. We discussed areas of life that we felt needed to be more inclusive for people with autism, such as social and leisure opportunities, employment opportunities, and autism awareness for emergency service workers."

Local MP Mark Hunter said: "The pupils has some excellent suggestions and contributions to make around the ongoing debate to how we can ensure autistic people have the opportunities to make the biggest possible contribution to our society. With advocates like them, the Autism Bill should be a success".

Inscape House schools are non-maintained, special schools for children with autism spectrum conditions. The schools provide rich and varied curriculums, safe environments and specialised approaches. Together they help over 120 children and young people with autism from the North West, develop educational, social and daily living skills so they can live as independently as possible in the future. The Inscape Centre provides assessment, consultancy and training for autism, as well as education to as mall group of young people within the spectrum who would not otherwise be able to access it.

For further information please contact the Together Trust on 0161 283 4848 or visit the website: www.togthertrust.org.uk